Touching on friendship, place and the passing of time, STILL OUT is an audio-visual collaboration between music producers Will Cookson and Tom Haverly and filmmaker Rufus Exton. Non-narrative in form yet resonant with embedded meanings, it evokes a road trip from North Yorkshire to North Devon they took together in the summer of 2024, featuring luminous footage of the natural world set to a soundtrack that was inspired by their long-standing interest in ambient and electronic music.

The film is also an oblique homage to The KLF’s iconic 1990 album Chill Out, which the pair revisited after it turned up unexpectedly a few years back in Tom’s dad’s record collection. To create their own version, Will and Tom relocated to the Devon coast in late summer 2023, splicing together an audio collage from a mix of original and found recordings in a remote cabin with no electricity or mobile reception.

Only after Will met friend and filmmaker Rufus Exton later that year to discuss visiting various landscapes referenced in the music did the idea of creating a visual counterpart take shape. Shot in the summer of 2024 the resulting work is a 40-minute reflection on the mental and emotional shift that occurs when stepping away from the routine of daily life. An adventure in feeling and form, the film celebrates our ever-changing relationship to the world around us and the mystery of what it means to pass through time and space.

The film will be shown at Stroud Film Festival on Friday 7th March, along with a Q&A and DJ sets from Darius Akashic (Crooked Stylus), Mat Sefton (Loose Joints) and Ross Lilly (Disco Sucks) that complement the film, drawing upon ambient, film soundtracks, downbeat selections and balearic styles.

More info and tickets (£4-8) here.